Parabéns: Turning 21 in Brasil!

Wow, what a birthday week I’ve had!

On Monday, the day before my birthday, I decided to make brigadeiros for my students at Siloé, the Christian, non-governmental organization where I teach English classes with my friend Rebecca.  Determined to keep stirring until my arm fell off, I cooked the brigadeiros too long, and when I retreived them from the fridge, they were hard as a rock.  The classic sprinkles that usually adorn these doces were not going to stick.  Still I molded the stubborn substance into balls of taffy-texture, placing them in the regular mini-paper muffin cups.  After Aurea gave up after one attempt to take a bite, I fled to the store hours before my class to buy ready-made chocolate doce de leite to form into brigadeiros with sprinkles.

After the most rhythmic rendition of the happy birthday song in English, my students eagerly reached for what I claimed was “taffy de chocolate”, a typical American candy.  I explained that it works best if you suck on it for a while, and that it is very popular in the United States.  Much to my surprise, they loved them!  And even after I passed out the store-bought version, the taffy-like brigadeiros were clearly the preferred candy.  Rebecca, however, insisted that I tell them the truth, which I did, much to their amusement–but I assured them that taffy really was a thing in the United States!

On, Tuesday morning, September 10th, my actual day of birth, I made brigadeiros again for my American classmates in Portuguese class that afternoon, before running off to an early morning meeting with a Toni, my presentation partner in communication class.  Unfortunately, he didn’t show up, but at least I got hugs, kisses, and “parabéns” from my other student friends on campus.  Ironically, to stand someone up is called “dar bolo”, or to give cake, so I guess Toni “me deu bolo”, or gave me cake for my birthday. 🙂

After Portuguese class at UFBA, the Federal University, my friends surprised me with a miracle–a dark chocolate and maracuja ICE CREAM CAKE!!!  I didn’t even know ice-cream cake existed here.  It was Rebecca’s idea to help me celebrate with ice-cream, since I always say I’d choose that any day over cake.

On Saturday, Rebecca and I took the bus to Praia da Boa Viagem, which is in Cidade Baixa, and we met some of her African friends from Togo and Benin who are here learning Portuguese and in her class at the University.  Far away from the high-rise apartments in the center of the city, I loved the feel of the community, the music from the barracas on the beach, and the clear turquoise waters of the bay.  As I sat in the sand, I watched some boys as they flipped off of a stone dock, that edged out just far enough so that they landed in deeper water.  The clouds deceived me and I skimped on sunscreen, which is why in the following pictures my face looks like, as Aurea calls it, a “camarão”, or shrimp.

There were two little boys with the cutest smiles who enjoyed giving us a show of flips and cartwheels in the waves.

View of the peninsula of Salvador

Saturday night, my host mom Aurea insisted that I invite everyone from the study abroad program to my house for a party.

A true Brazilian birthday party with both sweets and salgados. Aurea’s sister made the most delicious brigadeiros I’ve ever had and a huge cake.

Thanks Amanda for my first bottle of wine! (And to my host mom Aurea for my dress!)

Rachel, Aurea, Me, and Amber. Rachel made M&M cookies for me! They were my first cookies in Brasil. 🙂

Rochelle, Rebecca, and Amanda

So at my party, I was telling a funny story in my usual animated way, and my host mom

Even my reticent host brother Junior and his girlfriend joined us for song and cake, and gave me a gift of delicious Brazilian chocolates!

walks in, saying “I see you’ve already starting drinking the wine!”  Everyone bursts out laughing, knowing that I hadn’t had even a drop of alcohol yet!

After one small sip of wine (and four of five brigadeiros), I was giddier than ever, as I was so excited to find a drink that I liked.  Everyone else said it tasted like grape juice, which is why it was so good. 🙂

Finally, Aurea turned out the lights and everyone started singing “Happy Birthday”, first in English, then Portuguese, which I thought was never going to end….and just when everyone stopped singing, my host mom Aurea began with some song of blessing, with Junior and his girlfriend joing in too.  At last, I took a deep breath and blew out the candle in the little plastic cup that my mom held beside the cake, so that no wax would drip on it.  With big bowls of pipoca (popcorn), we sat down and watched Aladdin on my friends laptop, with everyone narrating their own version of the story, as the volume was too low to hear anything other than the voice of Genie.

The lyrics to some of the Portuguese version is below:

Parabéns pra você
Nesta data querida
Muitas felicidades
Muitos anos de vida!

Chegou a hora de apagar a velinha
Vamos cantar aquela musiquinha
Parabéns pra você (clap 3 x’s fast during the “pra você” part)
Parabéns pra você (clap 3 x’s fast during the “pra você” part)
Pelo seu aniversário.

Que Deus lhe dê muita saúde e paz
E que os anjos digam amém
Parabéns pra você (clap 3 x’s fast during the “pra você” part)
Parabéns pra você (clap 3 x’s fast during the “pra você” part)
Pelo seu aniversário.

É pique! É pique! É pique, é pique, é pique!
(first two are slower, last three are fast, each with their own claps)
É hora! É hora! É hora, é hora, é hora!
(first two are slower, last three are fast, each with their own claps)
Rá-tim-bum! (slow, clap on each)
(Name of the birthday girl/boy) 3 times